Half Past The Apocalypse

by Joe Kelly

  Oh hell, the thought flickered through Jared's mind as he tried to turn and bring his crossbow into line, Panic and fear reared up as the zombie bit down. a tooth breaking on the Motocross armor she wore over her leathers.

  Jill dropped the crossbow which thankfully didn’t go off or Jared might have ended up with a bolt in his ass. She grabbed a handful of greasy dead hair and pulled its head away from her arm by brute strength. Before the zombie could recover, she slammed its head down to meet her rising armored knee knocking out four of its teeth on the high impact plastic knee armor, the zombie straightened up like it had been pole axed dancing on its toes before falling on its back.

  Sharon rushed forward and cracked its skull with one swing of her bat. Jared, relieved that Jill was okay sent a bolt straight into the forehead of one of the zombies ahead of them, it had gotten to close during the tussel, The thing toppled silently over its skirt riding higher revealing thick pasty white thighs

  Shelly choked back a shriek, as a zombie lunged out of the shoe section. Her swing powered by panic planted the axe deep into its skull.

  She wrenched the axe free from the zombie’s skull while Jared calmly reloaded and dropped the zombie ahead of them. Jill cursing picked up her crossbow, and turned and shot down the one coming up from behind.

  “man this makes shopping with women so much easier and fun” Jared commented.

  “Just wait till we get back, I feel the need to kick you in the ass a couple of times” Sharon said.

  “I will hold him for you.” Jill offered flashing a strained grin at Sharon.

  “maybe get Mary to spank him too” Shelley said. “naw he would probably like it as much as Ronny.”

  “Can we stop discussing how sexy you three find me and let’s get this done” Jared whispered not quite smiling.

  “He is so getting spanked now” Sharon whispered back.

  Two passes around the store and Jared was satisfied that they could gather what they needed. They had limited time anyway. So as long as they were careful it should be okay. Shelley and Sharon snagged carts and loaded armfuls of children’s clothing into the carts and wheeled them to the doors. There were more zombies at the edge of the parking lot, now. Mark and Chris loaded the supplies from the carts into the back of the trucks.

  This time they all grabbed carts till they had ten carts lined up down the canned food section. Jill stayed on one end while Jared took the other side guarding the aisle while Shelly and Sharon scooped what ever cans remained into the carts as soon as one aisle was cleared they moved to the next and repeated the process. Once the carts were filled they wheeled them back to the front where Mark and Chris loaded them. Grabbing more carts they returned to the grocery side and kept working till they had everything left loaded up.

  After that they stripped the automotive section of batteries, plug kits, tire valves, oil and anything else they could use. once that was finished they headed to the Pharmacy section.

  Before everything had fallen apart and the dead had taken over some people had thought ahead and had hit the Pharmacy section but enough remained that they were able to find aspirin, cough drops, vitamins, allergy meds, decongestants, there wasn’t a lot of any one thing but there was a lot overall. They loaded carts by the armful and then would rush them back to the front.

  “Better hurry up.” Mark said as they dropped more carts off at the door. Jared looked out into the parking lot and did a quick count there was maybe a hundred of the stumbling, jerking semi dead assholes out there and he could see more coming from the woods and across the field between Wal-Mart and the neighborhood back there.

  “Pharmacy again” Jared said leading the women back into the store.

  They lined up more carts at the pharmacy and began to load first aid stuff, along with all the other things they thought might be needed.

  “Why don’t you two hit the sporting goods section and load up while we have the time. We haven’t seen another zombie in here. its probably safe.” Shelley said looking at Jared and Jill.

  Jared shook his head, “ you must not have watched horror movies, rule number one is never split up” Jared said looking around for any threat.

  “That’s rule two” Jill said quietly. “rule one is never have sex”

  Shelley shuddered “I will deal with the zombies any day before I follow rule one” She said with a grin.

  “Well that tears it,” Jared said as Sharon gave him a questioning. “we are doomed,”

  “we need the stuff in the outdoors section Jared. let’s hit it fast we have four carts, lets fill them and run.” Sharon said softly.

  “okay, but we do it as a group” Jared said when he didn’t hear another shot from outside.

  They moved quickly to the outdoors section, still carefully keeping watch, it was possible they might have missed a zombie or two and that was the kind of surprise none of them needed.

  Jared was honestly amazed at how much stuff was still left in the outdoors section. Water filtration straws, hand and pocket warmers, cans of lantern fuel as well as propane bottles. Waterproof boxes, again there wasn’t a lot of any one thing, but there was a lot overall. They loaded everything they could find in the carts.

  “Make sure you grab all the arrows, arrow head, bolts and anything else archery related;” Jared told the women.

  “Do we have room for four crossbows?” Sharon asked pulling a box off the shelf and holding it up for Jared to see.

  “Make room, we need those.” Jared replied as he loaded supplies. Crossbows might not be good against large numbers of undead but against singles or a very small group they helped save ammunition and were a lot quieter than firearms.

  Jill added air mattress’s, tents, and sleeping bags. Jared grabbed what little gun cleaning kits, patches, oil and anything else that was left on the shelves. There was even some ammo left on the shelves behind the counter as well as a shotgun with dried blood on the stock. It hadn’t been sold here, Jared thought, this Walmart had never sold firearms. He loaded the weapon with the other stuff into the carts. Just then more gunfire sounded from outside.

  “That’s it we can’t add another damn thing anyway. We’re out of here” he said. They were almost to the front doors, when three zombies stumbled out of the hallway that led to the break room and offices just to the right of the main door. Jared shoved his cart thru the front door and lifted his crossbow.

  The bolt hissed as it flew straight at its target and a zombie dropped with a shaft sticking out of its eye. He tossed the crossbow thru the doorway towards the trucks and drew his pistol. Not even bothering with trying to get to his Commando. With so many zombies outside now and the firing that chris and Mark had already done there was no real point to trying to stay silent.

  He would, if pressed admit to loving the Socom Mk 23. 45-caliber pistol and anyone watching him fire it would have believed it. He lifted the pistol in one fluid motion, sighting then touched the trigger the sudden boom was so surprising to the others, they jumped at the sound. His second shot followed so close that the two shots sounded like one. As the two bodies crumpled to the floor he saw more movement behind them.

  Son of a bitch all this time they were in the office and stock room . More likely in the storage and loading area room He thought. I should have explored the place. I screwed up, Hell if I had known they were back there. I might have been able to block the door, do something . We got lucky that they didn’t come wandering out while we were on the other side of the store and trap us inside away from the doors.

  He didn’t fire again, the ones at the back were moving forward at a fast shuffle but there was still time. The undead had reached the family bathroom door twenty two feet from his position. “How’s it going?” Jared asked.

  “Almost loaded.” Mark hollered no longer concerned with making noise. Jared shot a zombie in the lead, a twenty something guy in skinny jeans. He hated those damn things. They should be called chicken leg jeans. Any guy that wore them looked like a girl f
rom the waist down and could barely move anyway. No wonder he got bit, he couldn’t escape the undead in the damn things.

  He shot down a woman, whose face was half gone, and her left arm had been gnawed to the bone. There were so many of them that they were now spilling out around the service counter. He backed into the doorway, the zombies were now ten feet away.

  “Ready to roll!” Mark shouted. Jared backed quickly towards his truck watching as the crowd, of maybe twenty zombies, reached the store door. Knowing that his truck door was open and waiting he fired, then fired again.

  Hearing Mark and Chris’s trucks start he turned and leaped into the cab of his own truck, barely getting the door shut before the zombies reached him. “to damn close.” he said shuddering, he just knew one had been a hair away from grabbing his legs and dragging him back into the crowd.

  The Zombies were pawing at the windows, Jill was shouting something. Then suddenly Mark and Chris were gone clearing the way for Jared to leave. He hit the accelerator, and scraped the crash guards as he tore out of the place. They didn’t go for the entrance to the parking lot, there were way to many zombies back there, instead they jumped the curb on the south side of the store driving into the fields that separated the store from the homes beyond. Driving through the knots of zombies that were scattered across the field till they reached the road into the neighborhood then turned right and drove back towards the main road.

  From the main road they could see almost to the center of town, there was a crowd down there as well filling the street all the way past the stop lights before the courthouse, from the looks of it they were clustered around the courthouse. Jared frowned and tapped the steering wheel.

  “Something has them worked up and its not just us” he said aloud then keyed his radio. “Lets call it a day. The neighbors are being pissy” he said “We got some over the counter meds that should help” he didn’t look back as they took the back way around to 127, then headed back to camp.

  Jared hated this town now; if there was some way to get to the fuel storage area with out going thru the center of town life would be much easier. But there wasn’t unless they went cross-country. Soon we are going to come back and clear the damned town Jared decided.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  She sat shivering in the darkness of the closet, wishing she could pass out. on the other side of the door, she could hear Seth talking. His voice to low for her to make out what he was saying. She heard chairs scrape on the basement floor as if two people were rising to their feet and then another voice answered Seth. She couldn’t make out the words, but the impression of something dark and hungry struck her almost physically. She heard Seth laugh and tried to convince her self he was talking to himself. She didn’t believe it no matter how hard she tried to.

  She couldn’t judge time at all in the dark, but the conversation seemed to go on for a long time. “ Well thanks for dropping by, ignore the deputy on the way out he can be pretty rude.” She heard Seth say clearly. Then the old fall out shelter door shut with a clang. “Honey, you missed our company. I hope your awake baby I need some loving.” Seth called out.

  Tears welled in her eyes as she resigned herself, she hadn’t escaped being raped tonight after all. “Companies coming to call in a few days, gonna be a hell of a good time” Seth said as he opened the closet door wearing nothing but a smile.

  Darkness moved across the land and where it passed the living dreamt of blood and horror, and in its wake the dead stirred and began to follow.

  CHAPTER 13

  Labor day had come and gone, and cooler weather was starting to set in. It was already dropping down into the fifties at night. The days were still relatively warm, with mostly clear blue skies. It was the kind of early fall weather that made a man or women grab a motorcycle and hit the back roads for some serious cruising. The camp went on as it had though some supplies were starting to get tight, and nerves were fraying but overall they were dealing with it.

  He had kept from going back into town since the raid on walmart restricting their scavenging teams to the homes and farms outside of town. The problem was those homes and farms had limited supplies and parts they needed.

  And now with half the camp sick, out of parts they needed for the vehicles and the lumberyard and two old convenience store fuel tanks running low. He wanted to start running teams into the areas just on the edge of town to see how bad it was. The fact that he thought it would be far safer in the outskirts was upper most in his mind as well as it would give him time to run Deacon, Kyle and Jeff on safer scavenger missions to gain experience before he needed them on something much more dangerous. Assuming that it was any safer on the outskirts.

  Now all I need to do is stop thinking it’s a smart move and actually get off the stump and make it a reality. Yeah and if I could shake this uneasiness and fear of getting every one killed I would start it tomorrow. Spotting Jeff heading his way, Jared stood and walked down from the porch of the Main cabin.

  “how’s Vickie” Jared asked Jeff. Jeff on his way to the well to fill his buckets stopped and sat the buckets down. He looked tired Jared thought noting the lines and creases in his oldest friends face that had not been there four months ago. Vickie had come down with what ever bug it was that had been sweeping the camp and Linda was growing more worried by the day.

  “She’s about the same, The kids…” Jeff said then swallowed hard. “the kids have it now too. Pappy is sitting with them to give me a break. He was reading Dr. Seuss to them when I left. He even cooked breakfast and you now how he cooks” Jeff said trying to smile but failing. The mental image of Pappy reading Dr. Seuss was hard to believe, but Jared had known pappy for a long time and it wasn’t surprising.

  “If you can, I’d like to skip the scouting trips into town. I… want to be with them.” Jeff didn’t say just in case but Jared heard it any way.

  “not a problem, I was going to cancel the next couple any way. Give the dead a chance to calm down. That last trip was rough” Jared said sounding upbeat for Jeff not because he was in a good mood. He had known Vickie as long as Jeff had and cared for her almost as much as he did for Jeff.

  “I know, Someone else has to be alive in town for them to be that worked up.” Jeff said as he bent and picked up the buckets. “we can talk later, I need to get water for the family.” Jeff said. Jared watched in Silence as Jeff walked away, shoulders slumped and his head bowed. There has to be something I can do, he thought.

  it was a question he was asking himself far to often these days, Pappy is right I need to stop dithering and be a leader. The military had been different, he’d had his orders and made decisions that only effected his squad and himself and they had all volunteered. But here at the camp these people hadn’t volunteered and he hestitated on giving orders that could get any of them killed. But we aren’t going to survive by playing it safe, Jared told himself as he walked to the wall. Climbing the ladder he stood on the walkway looking down the road not even noticing Kyle or henry who had the watch.

  It was still a little muddy for the rain of the last two days which only added to the chill of the morning air. It was close to fifty this morning, and any other time he would have enjoyed it and looked forward to a nice fire in the fire place and a cup of coffee before he got busy around the place.

  “something wrong” Kyle asked, Henry remained quiet, whether because he didn’t give a damn or just not sure what to say Jared didn’t know.

  “No Nothing’s wrong just thinking” Jared replied. “oh and thanks for the help the other day, you and Deacon have more than pulled your weight around here.” Crap I hope Henry doesn’t take that as a subtle jibe that he hasn’t. well too late now. Jared thought with out looking at Henry whom he was sure was scowling. At least Deacon and Kyle had both volunteered to go on the patrols that Steve had started. They patrolled out a mile around the camp looking for undead that might have wandered into the area.

  Like Steve, Jared would love to be able to do those patrol
s daily, but they just did not have the manpower to do it more than a couple of times a week.

  “not a problem Jared our pleasure.” Kyle said with a smile then sneezed, he tried hard not to look worried but any one that looked like they might be coming down with a cold was worried these days.

  Jared patted him on the shoulder then climbed back down and headed for the porch of his cabin. He needed more coffee and time to think.

  The problem is we need the fuel and the medical supplies and there is no way around it. If we don’t go into town people that need those meds might die in which case I would have failed them and if we do, people might die. I just can’t find a low risk way to do what we need to do. We should be able to score some fuel in Allred and maybe some food if Ballard and sons Grocery wasn’t stripped bare, Jared told himself as he poured himself another cup of near coffee and then headed out to the porch with a nod to the others who were up and moving this early.